Lord, I Miss Her...




As the tears have fallen over the past several days, these few words are all I can manage when talking to God. I miss Maggie more than I ever thought possible. It's only been a week but it seems like an eternity since I last pet her, buried my face in the fur on her neck when we cuddled, or held open the door to the backseat of my Jeep so she could jump in and ride along wherever I was going.

My house seems so quiet and still without her following my every move, either with just her eyes or by getting up to move wherever I was. The nights are the hardest as she used to sleep right beside me in bed and now there's just an empty space. Her food dish still sits on the floor as I don't have the heart to put away quite yet and the other end of the couch sits empty in the evening while I'm watching tv. Her absence has been deafening at times, and completely heartbreaking at others.

Maggie had a few quirks that made me laugh but the biggest was her obsession with burying other dog's toys! In the house I lived in when I first got her, there was a chain-link fence that separated our place from the neighbors. They had a dog about the same size as Maggie and over time, they had both dug a little hole under the fence. One day I noticed one of the neighbor's dog's toys in my yard so I threw it back over the fence and went about my day. A few days later I found it buried (very obviously) in my yard and threw it back AGAIN. I would do that many, many times as the neighbor dog would pass her toys to Maggie under the fence and Maggie would bury them in our yard. Another time, we went to a friend's house to water their plants while they were out of town and Maggie busied herself burying their dog's bones in their dog's kennel! I also found many bones belonging to Ryan's dogs in his yard a few weeks ago while raking up all the leaves that Maggie had buried throughout the winter. She was obsessed and it always made me laugh!

Maggie was a friend to many, and I've been reminded that a lot since she died. I used to take her to Trinity with me each day when I worked there and students that hadn't seen her in years were saddened when they heard she died. She went to church with me on Sundays, as the designated Assistant Children's Church Director and she was loved by the adults just as much as the kids. A couple of women in my Sunday School class that designated themselves as 'Maggie's Sunday Morning Grannies" and she went straight to our room every Sunday morning, practically drooling in anticipation of those dog treats!

It is said that dogs are man's best friend and I have to agree. Maggie was this wo(man)'s best friend. Always loyal and faithful, always wagging her tail and wiggling her whole body when I came home - even if I was only gone a short while, always loving and accepting me for who I was. She loved me for me with no expectations or any conditions to meet. She was amazing in every way.

Rest in peace, sweet girl.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sufficient Grace Among Thorns

It happened again last night. I was scrolling through social media and learned an acquaintance had gotten married. I was happy for her, I really was. Many of her peers had been married for years and I imagined there was great joy for her as God finally brought her husband along. But almost instantly, that joy turned to sadness and a heaviness filled my heart. An all too familiar heaviness. One I've felt off and on for years, one that brings tears to my eyes, and one that, if I'm not careful, can turn into incredible bitterness. I've often thought that, besides Jesus, one of the people I am looking forward to meeting in heaven is Paul. I want to talk to him about that thorn in his side because, boy, do I have some questions! Did he experience times when that thorn seemed almost non-existent, more like a splinter in his side and just a mild annoyance? And on the flip side, were there times that little thorn seemed to be so infected and raw that it left a trail of blood with e
Read more

100 Things I'm Thankful For

After being inspired by a friend's list, I've been writing out a list of 100 things I'm thankful for every year for almost fifteen years now! This year though, if I'm honest, I've been tempted to just skip it. I've been walking through several weeks of fighting off depression and telling Satan through gritted teeth, almost daily, that he's not going to win. So this year, I wanted to just write a simple 'I am thankful for my many blessings' and be done with it. Sitting and writing out 100 things can be pretty tedious, especially when you get into the 60s and start to lost steam! But to sit and think about 100 things I am thankful for requires a bit of reflection, honesty, and a whole lot of intentionality, which is never a bad thing So, in no particular order, here we go... 1. The hope and joy I have that comes from a relationship with my Jesus. The longer I live and the more people I meet and interact with, the more aware I am that true joy can only
Read more

April Thoughts *Trigger Warning*

April is probably one of my favorite months of the year. Not only is it my birthday month (and that of some of the coolest people ever!) but after a long, cold, and gray winter, green grass starts to grow and the earth just smells new, fresh, and ready to come alive. Kids at school finally get the chance to play outside without their coats and the warm sun both brings out an orneriness and an exuberance for life that is unmatched during the winter months. Evenings are perfect for sitting in the sun with a good book and a whispering breeze to help sort through the events of the day as the sun heads off to bed and the moon prepares for the night shift. There's just something about the month of April! April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month and my social media comes alive with reminders that rapists are the sole cause of rape, that chains are broken every time a survivor tells their story, and that there is so much hope and healing available for those who have been wounded by sex
Read more